Is SE really going to repeat the foruma from 2.0 and 3.0???

[Galaktica]

What amazes me is all the people on the forums going on and on about how "other MMOs" are so much better, yet they are here complaining instead of playing these "better" MMOs.

I'll stick with FFXIV.

They're here because they give a shit. They want to love this game. They want to see it improve. Speaking up is the only thing they can do. When most people have problems with or get tired of this or any other game, do you know what they do? They leave without saying a word and never look back and that's not good for anyone. If the developers never think anything is wrong, how are they supposed to "fix" anything? And hey, it's probably safe to say nothing will come of this thread, but at least people can walk away knowing their was, at the very least, an attempt at a dialogue with SE.

[SoloWingMetatron]

They're here because they give a shit. They want to love this game. They want to see it improve. Speaking up is the only thing they can do. When most people have problems with or get tired of this or any other game, do you know what they do? They leave without saying a word and never look back and that's not good for anyone. If the developers never think anything is wrong, how are they supposed to "fix" anything? And hey, it's probably safe to say nothing will come of this thread, but at least people can walk away knowing their was, at the very least, an attempt at a dialogue with SE.

Exactly. Of course I'm under no illusion that SE will continue to steer FF14 down this linear path. If people like vertical progression that's totally fine.

But let's think about content like Omega (normal) for a moment. Aside from the fact it isn't even a Raid by any definition of the word, and literally just 4 trial fights. The gear that is offered in this content shows an even bigger problem. With the implementation of the token system. The only way to get the chest piece from Omega is to farm shafts. A shaft can only be obtained once per week, and it requires 4 shafts to acquire a chest piece. Now that in and of itself is fine. However literally 2 weeks after Omega's release, a new patch came. It gave us all this new gear which was noticeably more powerful and superior to any of the Omega (normal) gear. Yet literally no one was given a chance to earn their chest piece whilst it was relevant, because they would have needed a further 2 weeks to earn it.

2 weeks is a disgustingly short window for content to be relevant! (even by vertical progression standards). This was brand new content and SE cast it aside to become nothing but trash and alt gear before anyone could even earn the full set! I'm sorry but there is literally no good design choice there! Yet again another example out of many that shows how FF14's MMO elements are sub par.

[YitharV2]

They're here because they give a shit. They want to love this game. They want to see it improve. Speaking up is the only thing they can do. When most people have problems with or get tired of this or any other game, do you know what they do? They leave without saying a word and never look back and that's not good for anyone. If the developers never think anything is wrong, how are they supposed to "fix" anything? And hey, it's probably safe to say nothing will come of this thread, but at least people can walk away knowing their was, at the very least, an attempt at a dialogue with SE.

Yeah, I really wanted to love this game. My friends sounded like they were having a lot of fun playing this game. So I tried, but I was disappointed. See, I played TERA for a couple years. I started playing FFXIV in late February. I'm spoiled by TERA.

I just don't find the combat in this game that interesting. My friend (who's also talking in that clip), states how he reads manga or watches youtube while healing. I personally think there's something wrong when you can watch Youtube while playing a game, but that's just my opinion. I also doubt anything fruitful will come out of this discussion or that SE will change things, but at least I can say I tried.

[SoloWingMetatron]

Yeah, I really wanted to love this game. My friends sounded like they were having a lot of fun playing this game. So I tried, but I was disappointed. See, I played TERA for a couple years. I started playing FFXIV in late February. I'm spoiled by TERA.

I just don't find the combat in this game that interesting. My friend (who's also talking in that clip), states how he reads manga or watches youtube while healing. I personally think there's something wrong when you can watch Youtube while playing a game, but that's just my opinion. I also doubt anything fruitful will come out of this discussion or that SE will change things, but at least I can say I tried.

This resonates a lot with me. All of my friends and FC members who still play this game actively, all play it whilst doing something else. Like reading manga, watching anime/YouTube/Netflix/whatever. This is a subscription based MMO and should not be played passively as if it's some social media game like FarmVille or Candy Crush. Where all you can do is gather, recycle, rinse and repeat, until your "energy cap" runs out and you're forced to wait X amount of time until it resets. Obviously in FF14's case that "energy cap" is the tomes and weekly lockouts.

Now as I say those mechanics would be fine when applied to the right game type, such as free to play social media games. That you only hop on to play whilst on a boring bus/train ride. But when a game is subscription based and part of a AAA multi billion dollar company. That means it has a certain level of quality it has to adhere to. But instead all FF14 chooses to do is ride on it's franchise name. Final Fantasy. As long as it carries that name, certain people will always praise it. No matter what manner of quality the actual product is. I wonder how many would be so quick to jump to this games defense if it was not called Final Fantasy. If it had no part in the FF franchise.

I know this to be true because I'm guilty of this myself. The main reason I've put up with the current state of this game for so long was because it was "Final Fantasy". But the other thing that I know to be true, is that if you were to remove all trace of "Final Fantasy" from this game. You'd be left with a game that is no better than most free to play Korean MMO's. Which is why I say the MMO elements of FF14 just simply are not good enough. All the good things about it are things that are carried by the franchise name/universe and would benefit far more from a single player/semi multiplayer title at this point.

[YitharV2]

This resonates a lot with me. All of my friends and FC members who still play this game actively, all play it whilst doing something else. Like reading manga, watching anime/YouTube/Netflix/whatever. This is a subscription based MMO and should not be played passively as if it's some social media game like FarmVille or Candy Crush. Where all you can do is gather, recycle, rinse and repeat, until your "energy cap" runs out and you're forced to wait X amount of time until it resets. Obviously in FF14's case that "energy cap" is the tomes and weekly lockouts.

Now as I say those mechanics would be fine when applied to the right game type, such as free to play social media games. That you only hop on to play whilst on a boring bus/train ride. But when a game is subscription based and part of a AAA multi billion dollar company. That means it has a certain level of quality it has to adhere to. But instead all FF14 chooses to do is ride on it's franchise name. Final Fantasy. As long as it carries that name, certain people will always praise it. No matter what manner of quality the actual product is. I wonder how many would be so quick to jump to this games defense if it was not called Final Fantasy. If it had no part in the FF franchise.

I know this to be true because I'm guilty of this myself. The main reason I've put up with the current state of this game for so long was because it was "Final Fantasy". But the other thing that I know to be true, is that if you were to remove all trace of "Final Fantasy" from this game. You'd be left with a game that is no better than most free to play Korean MMO's. Which is why I say the MMO elements of FF14 just simply are not good enough. All the good things about it are things that are carried by the franchise name/universe and would benefit far more from a single player/semi multiplayer title at this point.

Yeah, I know many will disagree with me, but I agree that it rides on the coattails of its Franchise name. IMO SE is just resting on its laurels, because the fact is, they're making money. You take away the name and it's not really all that better than most f2p Korean MMOs. If I look back at Aika (it's kind of interesting because I was just looking for a random video but those are all people I played with; so nostalgic), the first MMO I played, I actually think that was more fun than FFXIV, probably due to the lack of a global cooldown. And PvP was really fun. If I look at tanking in Aika, the design has the same problem as FFXIV. Stuff just auto attacks most of the time, while doing tankbusters every so often, but it still looks more fun because more responsive inputs/no GCD.

And as a result of the simple combat system, there are so many gimmicks. As stated here, it's basically team jump rope. Fights are easy if you get people who know to do. And really hard if you're pugging and people are bad and don't know what to do (I think a DRK in my FC said he pugged Sus Ex on a Saturday and tried all day and didn't get one clear). "The current "mechanics-driven battle system" is considerd bland by the hardcore gamers (the biggest problem here, I think), frustrating by the mainstream gamers, and actually prevents the casual crowd from playing altogether." Basically you just get 7 other people that can do the dance, and the mechanics are boring. If you get people who can't do it, then it just becomes frustrating. I think this is actually why I dislike a majority of the content in the game. I do think mechanics have a place in fights, but I just dislike how mechanic-driven fights are.

Those are my two major complaints of FFXIV, the combat itself and the gimmick-driven nature of fights.